Cincinnati Museum Center's Ultimate Dinosaurs

My kids LOVE going to museums. When we moved to Austin, TX in 2010, one of the first things we did was become members at the Austin Children's Museum. Because we traveled frequently, we upgraded our membership so that we were able to use it at reciprocal museums and science centers across the US. 

I have fond memories of letting my imagination go wild at the Cincinnati Museum Center growing up, so once I had my own family, we started taking the kids there. Whether it be their holiday train exhibit or the awesome children's section, we got our money's worth from our reciprocal museum membership.

As we have transitioned back to the Cincinnati area, and our Austin membership expired, we have not yet purchased a new museum pass. So when we were invited to experience the new Ultimate Dinosaurs exhibit this past weekend, I jumped at the chance. Not only do my boys LOVE dinosaurs, but it would give me a chance to refresh my memory on all that the Cincinnati Museum Center had to offer. 

We started our visit with a showing of the OmniMax film  Dinosaurs: Giants of Patagonia  It was my boys' first OmniMax experience...even my husband's! I had no doubts that my 6-year-old would love it, but I suspected my 5-year-old might get a little overwhelmed by the massive screen. Sure enough, just a few minutes into the show, he got scared and asked to leave. I didn't object to taking him out - I wanted my husband to be able to stay and enjoy his first OmniMax show AND while it normally would not have bothered me a bit, the lights and images surrounding us from side to side made my almost 6 months pregnant head spin. :)

After the 45-minute show ended, we met up in the gift shop where I browsed the sale shelves and scored a super catchy CD of dinosaur songs, a Dino card game/puzzle and some mini-dino figurines. 

Ethan of course thought the movie was "the coolest thing ever" and couldn't wait to learn more about these giants so we headed downstairs to the Ultimate Dinosaurs: Giants from Gondwana exhibit. Prior to arriving, I downloaded the exhibit's app on my iPhone which gave us several opportunities to enhance our experience as we made our way through the massive dinosaur skeleton replicas. There were little dino images on the ground that would "come alive" when we held my phone over them with the app open. It was pretty neat! (see photo at left)

The kids enjoyed reading about what the world looked like before, during and after dinosaurs existed. And all-in-all our whole family had a great time. I would definitely recommend this exhibit and the OmniMax (although little ones might want to skip the show). As we exited the exhibit, I could barely keep my kids from running into the Children's Museum. We could have spent hours there! Looks like a Cincinnati Museum Center membership is in our future! I think it will make a great family Christmas present...hint, hint, Santa... :)

DISCLOSURE: I received complimentary tickets for my family to explore the Dinosaur exhibit and OmniMax show at the Cincinnati Museum Center. However, all experiences and opinions expressed in this post are genuine and my own. For more information on ticket prices and museum hours, please visit www.cincymuseum.org.